Tying and sealing means and method



April 17, 1934. H. B. FOULDER 1,955,627

TYING AND SEALING MEANS AND METHOD Filed Dec. 7, 1931 AQ'AATTQRNEY-handling.

Patented Apr. 17, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 9 Claims.

This invention relates to tying and sealing means and method, and moreparticularly relates to tying and sealing with wire bags filled withheavy material and likely to be subject to rough It is customary to shipcement in bags. It is essential that these bags be tied up so securelythat they will not become untied or opened during transportation orhandling. I It is also desirable that the contents of these bags beprotected against being tampered with by unauthorized persons; in otherwords, that they be sealed.

Accordingly, the principal object of this invention is to provide amethod of and means for tying and sealing a bag withwire so securelythat the bagwill not become untied and open even when filled with heavymaterial and subjected to rough handling, and in such a way that anyattempt to remove the wire intact after application will rupture thewire permanently and thereby establish clearly apparent indication ofthe tampering, the bag, however, remaining as securely tied after suchrupture as previous thereto.

A further object of this invention is to provide a combined tie and sealconstituting the sealing and tying means of the character referred to,and

a tie and seal which is simple and inexpensive,

onethat may be applied and removed quickly and easily, and one that isprotected so as not to be apt to cut or scratch the hands of a personhandling or undoing the bag or likely to out or injure other bags orarticles coming in contact therewith.

Qther objects of this invention will be in part obvious and in partpointed out hereinafter.

In accordance with this invention, the tie and seal may comprise alength of wire placed around the gathered neck of the bag and having thefree ends twisted together to hold the bag securely tied. The free endsof the wire are also twisted together toward their extremities andintermediate the two twisted portions one or both of the ends of thewire are weakened so that the wire will break at the weakened portion orportions when an attempt is made to untwist either twisted portion.

When the wire is broken it will give'clear indication of the fact thatan attempt has been made to untwist the wire. If desired, theextremities of the free ends of the wire may be protected, either byforming these extremities into loops, or forming upset heads thereon, orby other means as desired. In order that a clearer'underst anding ofthis invention may be had, attention is hereby directed to theaccompanying drawing, forming a part of 55;'tl 1 is application andillustrating one possible embodiment of this invention, and in which thefigure is a side view of the upper portion of a filled bag, about thegathered neck of which is bound a wire forming a tie and seal embodyingthis invention, and whereby the bag is held closed against being openedexcept accompanied by the breaking and destruction of the seal. Thefigure also depicts, by dot and dash lines, the seal broken but the wirenevertheless maintaining the bag securely tied.

Referring to the drawing, the tie and seal may comprise a length ofwire, preferably pliable, having its center portion 2 disposed about thegathered neck of the bag 1, and its free ends twisted together tightlyagainst the bag neck, as at 3, thus 0 maintaining the bag securely tied.The portions 2 and 3 constitute tying means.

' The ends of the wire extend a distance beyond the portion 3, as at 4,without being twisted upon. each other, and then are again twistedtogether, as at twisted portion 6.

The portions 4 of the wire may be bowed sit, as shown, or they may bestraight or in any other configuration desired, but preferably are nottwisted on each other for some distance. One or both of these portions 4are weakened so that a very slight bending will cause the wire to breakat the weakened spot or spots. A simple and efiective way to accomplishthe weakening desired is to nick the wire at the desired place orplaces, as at 5. Preferably only one of the seal portions 4 is weakened,so that if the bag is to be untide by untwisting the portion 3, theunbroken end will afford a better finger grip for this purpose thanwould be available if both ends of the wire were to break. However, itis quite usual to cut the wire where it encircles the bag neck to undothe bag, and when this is done it is immaterial whether one or bothportions 4 are weakened for breaking,

If desired, the extremities of the wire may be formed with heads orloops, such as 7 and 8, offering a better finger grip for the moreconvenient and easy manipulation of the seal to break and remove it fromthe bag. Furthermore, unprotected ends would be dangerous and likely tocause injury to those handling the bags and to tear other bags.

The advantages of providing the loop between the twisted portions 3 and6 and locating the breaking point at such loop are that the wire willbreak more readily when the wire is bent and the break will be morenoticeable than would be the case if the wire were weakened at a tightlytwisted portion. However, a characteristic of this invention is toprovide the combination of a weakened portion which will break when thewire is bent or tampered with, and the binding together of the two endsof the wire intermediate the weakened portion and the bag neck wherebythe portion encircling the bag neck is securely held in place, thusavoiding all strain on the weakened portion to keep the bag closed. Thebinding together of the two ends of the wire intermediate the weakenedportion and the extremities of the ends insures the wire breaking at theweakened portion when the extreme ends of the wire are turned. Thus thewire can be removed easily and quickly by merely taking hold of theprotected ends, giving them a slight turn to break the seal, and thenturning the part gripped about the broken end of twisted portion 3 tountwist this portion and remove the wire from the bag.

In applying the tie and seal the wire is usually placed about the bagneck and the twisting of both portions 3 and 6 completed before the wireis nicked or otherwise weakened to complete the seal. The protected endsmay be formed either before or after application of the wire to the bagneck. The twisted portions 3 and 6 may be formed either simultaneouslyor successively, and the twists may be in the same direction or incontrary directions. The application may be made with ordinary orspecial hand tools or with bench tools or with automatic machines, suchtools forming no part of the present application.

Obviously this invention may be applied quite generally, and is notlimited to the tying and sealing of cloth cement bags, the inventionbeing suited to anything to which the tie and seal may be applied.Accordingly it is understood that all matter contained in the abovedescription or shown in the accompanying drawing is to be in terpretedas illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

What I claim is:

1. Means for tying and sealing articles, comprising a wire looped aboutthe article and having its free ends intertwisted and having a weakenedportion adapted to break and thereby establish indication of tampering,when undoing of the intertwisted ends is attempted, there being anintertwisted portion intermediate said weakened portion and the loopabout the article, whereby the loop is maintained in place on thearticle irrespective of the breaking of the wire at said weakenedportion.

2. Means for tying and sealing articles, comprising a wire looped aboutthe article and having its free ends intertwisted and having a weakenedportion adapted to break and thereby establish indication of tampering,when undoing of the intertwisted ends is attempted, there beingintertwisted portions of the free ends of said wire on both sides ofsaid weakened portion, whereby the intertwisted portion intermediatesaid weakened portion and the loop about the article maintains the loopin place on the article irrespective of the breaking of the wire at saidweakened portion.

3. Means for tying and sealing articles, com prising a wire looped aboutthe article and having its free ends intertwisted and having a weakenedportion adapted to break and thereby establish indication of tampering,when undoing of the intertwisted ends is attempted, there beingintertwisted portions of the free ends of said wire on both sides ofsaid weakened portion, whereby the intertwisted portion intermediatesaid weakened portion and the loop about the article maintains the loopin place on the article irrespective of the breaking of the wire at saidweakened portion, the free ends of the wire being not intertwisted atsaid weakened portion.

4. Means for tying and sealing articles, comprising a wire looped aboutthe article and having its free ends intertwisted and having a weakenedportion adapted to break and thereby establish indication of tampering,when undoing of the intertwisted ends is attempted, there beingintertwisted portions of the free ends of said wire on both sides ofsaid weakened portion, whereby the intertwisted portion intermediatesaid weakened portion and the loop about the article maintains the loopin place on the article irrespective of the breaking of the wire at saidweakened portion, the free ends of the wire being not intertwisted andbeing bowed out in opposite directions at said weakened portion.

5. Means for tying and sealing articles, comprising a wire looped aboutthe article and having its free ends intertwisted and having a weakenedportion adapted to break and therebyestablish indication of tampering,when undoing of the intertwisted ends is attempted, there beingan'intertwisted portion intermediatesaid weakened por- E and the loopabout the article, wherebythe loop is maintained in place on the articleirrespective of the breaking of the wireat said weak ened portion, theextreme endportions of the wire being deformed to shield the sharpextremities and to provide finger grips for the manipulation of thewire.

6. A method of tying and scaling of the char.- acter described whichconsists of looping. a wire about an article, intertwisting the freeends of the wire and subsequently weakening the wire so as to break whenundoing of the intertwisted ends is attempted and to leave an unweakenedintertwisted portion intermediate the break and the loop about thearticle, whereby the loop is maintained in place about the articleirrespective of such breaking. I

7. A method of tying and sealing of the character described whichconsists of looping a wire about an article, intertwisting the free endsof the wire into two intertwisted portions with an intermediate notintertwisted portion, and subsequently weakening one of said endsat saidintermediate portion so as to break there when twisting or untwisting ofeither of said intertwisted portions is attempted.

8. A method of tying and sealing of the character described whichconsists of looping a wire about an article, intertwisting the free endsof the wire into two intertwisted portionsturned in opposite directionsand with an intermediate not intertwisted portion, and subsequentlyweakening one of said ends at said intermediate portion so as to breakthere when twisting or untwisting of either of said intertwistedportions is attempted.

9. A method of tying and sealing of thecharacter described whichconsists of looping a wire about an article, intertwisting thefreeendsof 1 HENRY B. FOULDERT

